Flashback: Secrets of Merseyside’s workhouses

Tales of Liverpool’s old workhouses linger long in the city’s memory

Children from an old Victorian workhouse on a day out next to the Steble fountain, Liverpool

In Victorian society, the workhouse represented the underbelly of society, where anyone who was poor, homeless, unemployed or ill was sent to work and live.

Before the birth of the NHS and the welfare state, the workhouse was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation, healthcare and employment – but at a heavy price.

Life in a workhouse was intended to be harsh, to deter the able-bodied poor and to ensure that only the truly destitute would apply.

In a new ITV documentary, Secrets of the Workhouse, presenter Fern Britton, actress Kiera Chaplin, actor Brian Cox, actress Felicity Kendal and author Barbara Taylor Bradford are going back to the sites of the workhouses where their ancestors lived to find out what happened to them.

But, here in Merseyside, there are many families who can trace their families back to the workhouses.

Founded in 1732, Liverpool's first parish workhouse was erected at the corner of College Lane and Hanover Street. A new “House of Industry” was built in 1769-72 at Brownlow Hill to accommodate up to 600 inmates. In 1796, a fire at the workhouse destroyed one of its wings.

The following year, Liverpool was the subject of a report in Eden's 1797 survey of the state of the poor in England, which said: "The children are mostly employed in picking cotton, but are too crowded, 70 or 80 working in a small room.”

As part of a Royal Commission report into workhouses, assistant commissioner Gilbert Henderson visited Liverpool workhouse. He saw there the segregation of the sexes, a 12-hour working day, and almost constant confinement to the premises.

The report said: “The inmates of the workhouse were formerly allowed to go out every Thursday afternoon – this permission led to many irregularities, the paupers frequently returning drunk, and begging or otherwise misconducting themselves in the streets to the scandal of the establishment.

“They also used to go out on Sundays to church, but a chapel has been built within the workhouse and a regulation was adopted in 1831, which restricted the liberty of leaving the house to the first Thursday afternoon in every month.

“The Catholics go out to chapel at eight every Sunday morning, and return at ten. Thus, one condition of entering this workhouse is submission to constant confinement, except for a few hours every month.”

As well as Brownlow Hill, there were workhouses in Prescot, Tranmere, Walton and Toxteth Park – where Asda now stands. A significant number of male inmates had been in the Navy as Ed Harris, a retired postman from Kirkby, found out when researching his grandad, Edward.

“My wife and I have done a lot of research into my family tree and have managed to go back quite a long way on my mother’s side but haven't had much luck on my father’s side,” says Ed, 57. “My father’s father came from Ipswich and ended up in Liverpool through being in the Navy.

“When we were tracing his history, we found the family living in Ipswich on the 1901 Census but by the 1911 Census my grandfather, Edward Robert Harris – aged eight – and his elder brother – aged 14 – were in the Ipswich Workhouse School and my great-grandfather – Joseph Christopher Harris – was in the actual workhouse.

“We hired a local historian in Ipswich to try and fill in the gaps from 1911 up to the early 1920s, when my grandfather arrived in Liverpool, but without success. What we did find out, however, was that my grandfather had several other siblings that we didn't know about. One of them, Elizabeth, also ended up in the workhouse when my great-grandmother passed away. We assume that, as soon as he was old enough, my grandfather joined the Navy and eventually ended up in Liverpool where he met my grandmother. They married in 1922 and my father was born in 1927.”

“I remember my grandad – I was seven or eight when he died – but he never mentioned the workhouse. In fact, my dad (Edward William Harris) didn't even know about it until my wife and I found it on the 1911 Census.

“It made me and my dad quite sad when we found out my grandad's history. He must have had a really difficult childhood. But, at the same time, it makes me quite proud that at least he managed to escape from the poverty and make something of his life by joining the Navy, coming to Liverpool, getting married and having my dad – he only had the one child."

Steve Evans, from Crosby, also traced his family back to Prescot workhouse.

“It was very upsetting to find out about my great- great-grandparents,” says Steve, 55. “Firstly that they were actually in the workhouse at all, and then to find that they'd died there – unbelievably, on exactly the same day.

“John Evans had been a successful shoemaker. He was born in Liverpool in 1821 and christened in St Nicholas Church. He learned his trade of shoemaking and moved out to Gateacre. He and his wife, Martha, had 11 children.

“John became a master shoemaker, which meant he must have built up a successful business with men working for him. Something went tragically wrong very quickly, though – probably the illness that led to the deaths of both John and Martha on September 8, 1866.

“Four of the children were left orphaned in the workhouse after their parents' deaths. My great-grandfather, Reuben, was three years old, his brothers John, five, Benjamin, one, and sister Margaret, eight.”

Steve’s research has revealed a huge amount of detail: “I researched the minute book of the Prescot Union Workhouse from September, 1866,” he says. “It records that part of the workhouse was then set aside as a cholera ward but six months later, as it was no longer required, was turned into a schoolroomfor the boys.

“Reuben and John grew up together as young men. Both lived in Prescot and St Helens, living to ages 70 and 79. A couple of years ago, I met up with John's great-great-grandson, Don Evans, who had also discovered the same wonderful history of our shared ancestors.

“Don and I had a pint together in the Clock Face, Prescot. Just last year, I found Reuben Evans' gravestone in a churchyard in Sutton, St Helens. My old dad, Ernest Evans, 81, hadn't known where his grandfather was buried. He and I tidied up Reuben's grave together.

“It's wonderful that these past members of my family may be gone but now not forgotten.”

Send a story

Advertising Department

Trinity Mirror Merseyside, the Echo's parent company, is one of the North West’s largest multimedia providers reaching more than 900,000 adults every month.

The Liverpool Echo, Trinity Mirror Merseyside’s flagship brand, is the area’s best-read newspaper including national newspapers.

The Liverpool Echo reaches 1 in 3 people in the area with a daily readership of more than 256,000* people.The Liverpool Echo website reaches 1.5 million unique users each month who look at around 8.5 million pages**.

The Editor

Alastair Machray

Alastair Machray was appointed editor of The Liverpool Echo in 2005 and is also editor-in-chief of Trinity Mirror Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales. He is a former editor of The Daily Post (Wales and England) and editor-in-chief of the company's Welsh operations. Married dad-of-two and keen golfer Alastair is one of the longest-serving newspaper editors in the country. His titles have won numerous awards and spearheaded numerous successful campaigns.